Bands - Filsufatia: 5 comments

Would it make me a self boasting basket case for writing about my own band? I love writing and I love reading my own writings. I have always been my own blog audience. Although, this blog was created for one straightforward reason; so that I can write something about Zubirun and Qharinth, I still need to consume and utilize these empty spaces, at least for the time being, before I have enough materials to write about the above mentioned bands. Until then, I shall write what ever I deem fit for The Bullet Belt.

Filsufatia is my one man band and it has been in existence for quite a while now. If my memory served me correctly, I formed Filsufatia out of boredom, as a bedroom band project, somewhere later in 2004. It all started when I first managed to get my hands on this one cool home studio software called Fruity Loops Studio. Well, it is not until later that I found out that I could actually utilize this loop program to create heavy metal. I started using Fruity Loops Studio since 2003. Back in those days, it was all about RnB and Hip Hop music (hell, I still do the normal music arrangements once in a while). One fine day, I found out that there were some of the loops available in the program resembled the sound of a distorted electric guitar and if utilized and mixed properly, I can actually emulate the sound of a real band. I kind of freaked out. To cut the story short, the rest was history.

I always wanted to be in a metal band because there were always a plentiful of crazy riffs and melodies flying in and out of my head. I have been in a number of bands before but they were either punk, hardcore or pop and never metal. The satisfaction of playing live instruments was there but not in terms of the need to express my heavy metal creativity and originality. I need an outlet to express this fervor for grunting vocals, orchestral arrangements, haunting chapels, dark riffs and corpse paints, thus the formation of Filsufatia as a foundation to gratify my metallic lust and growling desires was the most perfect venue. It was the best venue for me because using computer programs would mean I can continue doing this on my own without the need to go through the painstaking task to recruit band members and when ever I feel like I want to compose songs, I just turn on the computer.

I have been releasing demos every year since 2006 and it was loads of fun reading comments and feedbacks, be it negative or positive, from those who have been kind enough to spend their precious time listening to my music. You can always sell tons and tons of records and get a huge paycheck for your work, but at the end of the day I personally believe that the best accolade for a musician is when people tend to appreciate and value his works.

Orchestrated under the influences of three legendary home grown bands in the likes of Sil Khannaz, As Sahar and Riusgnal, I do believe that, with the right formula and ingredients, local bands can be as much as fundamental as any metal bands coming from the outskirt of Europe, United States or the isle of Great Britain. Originality is and has always been the key for any local bands to smell the scent of success. For instance, I am still in awe each and every time I put on Pendita Gila. One word that I can use to describe that record is precision. The riffs were very much haunting, mind sticking, awkwardly groovy and the fact that they used a drum machine made the record even more defined and original than any other metal records available during that time, locally or internationally.

As for As Sahar and Riusgnal, it was the idea that made them into icons. The music was a beautiful amalgamation of brutality and straight forward melodies, although not as original but it was the fact that both of these bands introduced the idea of incorporating Malay occultism and mysticism in their lyrics with heavy metal that had made them into pioneering bands. It was really an eye opener and it caught my attention. It was from the brilliant and luminous idea of these bands that made the music eventually evolved into a whole new heavy metal genre, what is now called Eastern metal. That’s originality my friends. I even dare to say that it was the idea to incorporate Ulek Mayang into thrash metal that made Cromok ever so popular with the Australian Metal crowd back in the late 80s. Rather than turning to Lavey’s Satanic Bible for lyrics, you can always turn to your own backyard.

With Filsufatia, originality is still way ahead of me. I am still struggling to capture the grandiose of heavy metal music but who knows maybe after a while, after I have exhausted all these crazy riffs inside my head, I will finally be able to see a point where I can be original with my music.

Filsufatia on MySpace.